Active collaborative learning

We are committed to improving students' engagement with learning and assessment through active learning approaches such as Team-Based Learning (TBL), inverted classrooms and flipped classrooms.

TBL is one of the active learning approaches being adopted at ARU to address our Education Strategy’s aims. TBL is:

“a special form of small group learning using a specific sequence of individual work, group work, and immediate feedback to create a motivational framework in which students increasingly hold each other accountable for coming to class prepared and contributing to discussion"
(Michael Sweet (2010) quoted in Sibley and Ostafichuk, 2014, p 6).

Anglia Learning & Teaching, together with Faculty TBL Leads, support the development of team-based and active collaborative learning across ARU.

In March 2017, Anglia Learning & Teaching received a major award from HEFCE to increase active collaborative learning and TBL approaches for the benefit of students from all backgrounds. We are working on this Scaling Up Active Collaborative Learning for student success project with our partner institutions, University Bradford and Nottingham Trent University.

Through the project, we ran an international Active Learning Conference on 11–12 September 2017, with resources still available to view.

We are happy to help with any aspect of staff development or resource production to support expanding TBL.

External resources

View CPD opportunities